High School Confessions Of A High School Cheerleader

[SassyRachael]

omg here I go....
for me it was
-my coaches having zero knowledge of cheerleading
-our super un-cute old school, make even the skinny girls look fat, unis
-the fact that our school literally called us a joke
-5 hour practices because there were girls that couldn't figure out a freaking butt roll
-untalented girls making varsity over girls who worked their butts off & were good because their parents paid off the school
-my coach making it so much harder than it had to be for the girls that did allstars as well as HS because she didn't approve of it
-drama, squad drama got so nasty & overly personal over the stupidest things
-our coaches getting involved with the drama & not in a helpful way.
thats all for now

 

[CheerBank]

Brace yourselves ladies..this is going to be one big of a confession. It's a wrap up of my entire season of football cheer, and the reason why cheerleader was basically ruined for me. I should start of by saying that a few of my friends remain on the squad to this day, and I don't hate them for anything that happened. I figured this was appropriate for a confession thread because..well..there really wasn't any other place for it, and I haven't told this story to anyone but my mom so..I figured it was a confession of my experience to the outside world. This is still difficult for me to talk about, the wound is still a little fresh, but bare with me. I was just hoping to get the story out there, and get some opinions.

I tried out for cheerleading in April of my sophomore year, with my best friend encouraging me and a veteran on the squad I was feeling pretty confident. I was obviously one of the worst, never having cheered before I didn't expect to make it honestly but this was right around when I started following allstar cheerleading and fell in love. My area isn't big on allstar, the closet gym is about an hour away and I had absolutely no tumbling skills. To my surprise, my coach had told me she saw potential in me and accepted me onto the squad. I was beaming for the next few days, I had already started stretching to better my jumps. Practice didn't start until August, but I was so excited. Fast forward from April to July, when I had my first cardiology appointment since a hospital stay in February when they found I had a slow/irregular heartbeat. Because of my heart, I dizzy easily and pass out. Long story short, I had more then a slow and irregular heart beat. To save some confusion and googling, I basically was born with a hole in my heart which closed by skin suctioning in onto it, giving it a chance to easily leak. This means no lifting weights, no push ups, no carrying any heavy boxes, and slight circulation problems. You might be able to see where that might be a problem in cheerleading.

Our first practice comes along and I had my coach my doctor's note, and she assured me that I would be treated equally and that I would probably be able to fly. Boy, I wish I knew then what I knew now. As practices come and go, I noticed girls giving me glares because I didn't have to condition as hard as them and because I got more frequent water breaks. When it came time to make up stunt groups, I wasn't given a position to fly; I was given a seat on the bench. I felt so isolated from a group that I was already barely bonding with, I remember running to my mom's car after practice and crying. As a junior, I never thought I would go crying to my mom. Our first game comes around and it just gets worse, our school has a tradition where the cheerleaders do pushups after every touchdown. For the first touchdown I tried to be completely natural, I stayed in a plank position while the other girls did their seven pushups. Afterwards, the coach motioned me over and told me I had looked stupid planking. I was then instructed to, as quickly as I could, climb over the rope that roped off our section, run across the track lane, and stand quickly in front of the bleachers. I again felt isolated..but this time, I couldn't help but feel humiliated. I even had the band instructor come up to me and jokingly say " Oh what, you don't do pushups? "

A few more incidents happened; I was constantly blamed by teammates for messing up dance counts and thus messing them up, even though I was not one of the front rows, my coach started to belittle me and tell me ' I knew what I was signing up for ' when I would ask for breaks, I was benched for having to miss a game for passing out before I'd left my house, and some drama on the facebook group because somebody decided to take my headband/bow. It got to the point where I had to have my mom talk to the coach, where the coach immediately told my mom I had an attitude problem and was acting hostile towards the girls. As sick as my mom was of listening to my coach tell her that basically it wasn't her problem, she encouraged me to stick out the season and show everyone they weren't going to bring me down. Fast forward to the last game of the season, it was snowing and colder than ever, but even with the circulation problems I was determined to finish the regular season at least. So there I went with a pair of leggings, both warm up pants, a crewneck, both warm up jackets, two pairs of gloves/socks and one of those ski ear wraps. I thought I was prepared, but I didn't anticipate the temperature drop and the wind. By the third quarter I was silently crying to myself, my toes felt like they had frostbite and I felt dizzy. I was told to " Suck it up " by the team captain, and that " Everybody else is cold, you don't see them crying, ". This girl was made fully aware of my condition at the start of the season, being the captain, and was now telling me to shut up. I was told by the coaches that if there was ever an issue, I would be able to sit out no problem. Fourth quarter I ran to the concession stand, downed two clam chowders and brought a hot chocolate with me back to my seat. Now that I didn't have to be in ' uniform ' with the other girls, I threw on my heavy winter coat. I was sitting next to the coaches and both asked me why I even came if it was going to be an issue, and that I should have just stayed out there for another quarter. At this point we made the playoffs but my mind was set, I was done with feeling like crap doing something that I was in love with. I asked my mom to inquire about tumbling classes at the local gymnastics place, I wanted to get away from the people who ruined my experience and move on. I had already had a good amount of leg muscle from years of club soccer, but failed to think through the arm muscle part. Needless to say, after attending the free trial class and being told I needed a doctors note, my cardiologist didn't approve. But hey, I discovered I have one hell of a front roll.

I was ready to put this all behind me, I lasted the regular season and only stopped when it was hurting my health, and since I was on the varisty squad in my school the policy was that I get a varsity letter. When they sent out letters to people on varsity teams and I didn't get one, I went to the office and asked if I was on any kind of list. My coach had left me off the cheerleading list. At this point, I was fed up with my coaches and wanted to head straight to the source; the athletic director. For some reason, I thought that would help things. Unfortunately, the second the office sent and email to the coaches was when my coaches sent the athletic director an email. Upon sitting down for a meeting, I was told that I was lazy, purposely missed practices, events and games, quit the squad for no reason, and didn't meet the criteria of a varsity athlete. I remember almost crying in front of him and it was her word against mine, like in most school systems, he sided with her. I could see this as soon as he asked why I thought I deserved it, and when he took it a step farther. In the winter we had a girl from the special needs class on the basketball squad, she sat on the bench all of the games but according to him ' that's all she could do'. I was compared to her, saying that even though this girl ' couldn't do anything ' she was still at every game with a smile on her face. I explained to him my heart condition and the effects it had on me, that I was completely unconscious when the coach claimed I purposely missed, and often times got nausea after coming to, but he repeated over and over that even though she 'couldn't do anything ' she was always in attendance and smiling. Again, he decided to humor me and tell me he'd speak with the coach and get back to me. He never did. I saw him in the hallways the last week of school where he said he would call me down, and never did.

This was a huge confession and kind of different than all the other ones posted here, but I guess the moral of the confession is..I hope that if this happens to you, or you are being treated unfairly by a coach/teammate/etc, that you speak up for yourself. I probably could have fought this with the school system, but chose not to. I'm ready to move on, and I am perfectly happy watching all the major competition livestreams and chatting about them on Fierceboard. Fierceboard makes me feel accepted, and I love coming on to a place where I know I won't be judged for not cheering and having a love for allstar. Hey, my mom even started dating a guy whose daughter does allstar..maybe everything happens for a reason and this is life's way of saying ' We're going to keep cheerleading in your life'. Seriously, if you the the time to read this..you deserve all the shimmies. I'm not asking for sympathy, the situation is over and done with and I've moved on with my life. I'm going to be a senior, and happy I have a new school year to move onto. Just curious on what your opinions are and what you would have done differently?

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Your coach and AD should be absolutely ashamed of the way they treated you. Once the coach was made aware of your condition and decided to keep you on the team, she had a responsibility to make you a part of that team in every capacity possible, which she failed to do. Your condition should have been discussed with the school nurse, the AD and the team before the season started, and your limitations should have been openly addressed. The fact that you stuck it out for the season after everything that went on shows your true character and you should be very proud of yourself for doing so.
Hopefully others who read your story will follow your advice and speak up for themselves before a situation spirals out of control. I'm happy to hear that you have been able to move on and that you are still able to have a love for cheer.

 

[cailynnchase]

I hate when non-flyers spend the whole practice trying to show off their body positions. You aren't a flyer. You're not gonna pull a bow and arrow on the ground during our routine so don't do it at practice.

That said, I also hate when non-flyers don't even bother taking stretching a little farther than warm-up stretches. Stretching is good for you when done properly and will help prevent your wrist hurting after basing and tumbling, etc. Just don't bother showing everyone your needle if you'll never use it anyway.

 

[cheernerd5678]

People who are tiny and have never flown, but think they should be flyers. So they try but obviously everyone else has years of experience on them and better body positions so they don't end up flying. But they refuse to base because they "hate basing" it's like... What are you contributing to our routine?? Way to stand behind the stunts while the rest of us are working and then act out of breath at the end of the routine...


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[MaddiKate]

White uniforms. They look good if they're new, but in my case the uniforms get passed down from varsity to JV to freshman and stay in each for 2 years so last year I got a 6 year old 'white uniform' that was tinted yellow and girls had like just random stains on there's. they looked horrible.


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*sigh* Those grimy dirt marks in the uniforms, especially around the waist/hip area, just from touching it with not-so-clean hands...

 

[FierceIsTheName]

I hate when non-flyers spend the whole practice trying to show off their body positions. You aren't a flyer. You're not gonna pull a bow and arrow on the ground during our routine so don't do it at practice.

That said, I also hate when non-flyers don't even bother taking stretching a little farther than warm-up stretches. Stretching is good for you when done properly and will help prevent your wrist hurting after basing and tumbling, etc. Just don't bother showing everyone your needle if you'll never use it anyway.

I disagree with the beginning. I'm a base and I am more flexible than my flyers (except for one), and I don't have a problem with bases being flexible. It helps their jumps, and overall it makes them better.

 

[ShannonKe]

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Your coach and AD should be absolutely ashamed of the way they treated you. Once the coach was made aware of your condition and decided to keep you on the team, she had a responsibility to make you a part of that team in every capacity possible, which she failed to do. Your condition should have been discussed with the school nurse, the AD and the team before the season started, and your limitations should have been openly addressed. The fact that you stuck it out for the season after everything that went on shows your true character and you should be very proud of yourself for doing so.
Hopefully others who read your story will follow your advice and speak up for themselves before a situation spirals out of control. I'm happy to hear that you have been able to move on and that you are still able to have a love for cheer.

To be honest, I'm surprised I stuck out the season and bit my tongue for the most part. Normally I'm a very outspoken person in school, I'm the person who will speak their mind if I believe something isn't right. I didn't feel right disrespecting the sport by being rude or being ungrateful for being on the squad, I only really said one questionable thing to my coach when I flat out told her she was being unfair to me. There were times where I felt like the girls thought I knew nothing about cheer, I had an argument about standing fulls with a girl for ten minutes. She was trying to tell me standing fulls were impossible, I showed her a video of Kiara Nowlin's jumps to standing full, and she claimed that Kiara had done a 'tuck twist. ' It was frustrating to enjoy cheer, but constantly be told I knew nothing about the sport by girls who had zero tumbling but claimed things like that. I enjoy cheering so much, if it weren't for the coaches I would be trying out next year. I could have handled sitting on the bench or standing out during pushups if the coaches were nice about it and offered an alternative.

I've already been asked by my mom's boyfriend to attend and help out at cheer competitions, and I couldn't be more excited. In my opinion, just being there and supporting his daughter will be a better experience than high school cheering. Will I be envious when my best friend totes around her varsity jacket for cheerleading? Yes, I won't lie. I earned one and wasn't even given time to argue my case, which I think is completely unfair. However, I'll definitely be ordering some all star shirts and supporting my favorite teams, regardless of if they think I have no knowledge of cheer or not.

 

[Stephanie Ramsaier]

well...here i go..
1.if you have tumbling... TUMBLE! don't stand on the sidelines and do nothing
2.making varsity should be based upon talent, not seniority! if you (head coach) tell me after tryouts i should be on varsity, put me on varsity!
3.don't tell the Jv girls you'll put them up to varsity after Jv season if you wont.
3.don't make us spend countless practices teaching the fight song and cheers to new girls...YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ALREADY LEARN THEM!!!
4.if you don't have time to coach...give the squad to someone who can
5.before you become my friend...be the coach we need
6.conditioning should be a mandatory thing
7.don't you ever let your flyer hit the ground...SAVE. THE. STUNT.
8.other sports thinking we don't do anything for the school..HELLO WE'RE CHEERING FOR YOU
9.don't not show up for peprallys...we choreographed the routine with you in it don't act like you're "sick" every time
10.S M I L E!!! probably my worst pet peeve ever....its not that hard to at least look like you're having fun

 

[cailynnchase]

I disagree with the beginning. I'm a base and I am more flexible than my flyers (except for one), and I don't have a problem with bases being flexible. It helps their jumps, and overall it makes them better.

Yes, I'm the same way. I'm a base and I stretch in my free time and am also more flexible than some of the flyers on my team. However, it's annoying when girls who don't fly waste time at practice trying to pull their body positions to show everyone. I just feel as if it's a waste of time. I definitely agree that non-flyers should be stretching.

 

[MaddiKate]

8.other sports thinking we don't do anything for the school..HELLO WE'RE CHEERING FOR YOU

And make you guys posters every week! And bring you guys treats to all of your home meets! And not just the football team. And we go to all of your volunteer events!
I hate to sound greedy, but cheerleaders are really under-appreciated!

 

[Daniellerae]

Confession time, I hate smiling at games. If you tell me to smile, I'll probably smile less.


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[mariahnicole1216]

I feel like i'm the only one who is head over heels in love with high school cheer. Maybe its my town and my team but I live for it. My team is counting down the days that we get to put our uniform on for that first friday night football game<3

 

[pvcheerclauds5]

I feel like i'm the only one who is head over heels in love with high school cheer. Maybe its my town and my team but I live for it. My team is counting down the days that we get to put our uniform on for that first friday night football game<3

You aren't the only one it is my favorite part about going to my school! I love how you get the best of both worlds at high school cheer. And my best friends are all on the team!

 

[MaddiKate]

Sideline complaint:
When a girl who is normally spot-on with chants screws up once, and the coach throws a fit. Meanwhile, no one says anything when a girl never knows her chants, even later on in the season.

When girls think they can slide by being lazy during practice and at games because everyone thinks that said girls are good just because they're hot and they've done all-star.

 

[CEAisstronger]

When girls put the blame on someone else but it's their fault.
Also telling me to jump higher when loading into a stunt. You don't think I've tried? I'm tiny. Even the coach tells them get lower for me.


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